Aleppo Close to Complete Siege by Syrian Government Forces
Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, could soon be completely under siege by government troops, the Los Angeles Times reports. “A siege would cut off an estimated half a million people from access to food, medicine, fuel and other basic necessities,” the newspaper writes.
Aleppo has been divided between rebel and government forces for over two years. In that time the city has witnessed almost daily regime airstrikes, including barrel bombs, with many civilian casualties.
In October the Daily Beast profiled the intensifying battle for Aleppo, citing commanders from the Free Syrian Army. They called on the U.S. to launch airstrikes to stop the advance of regime forces; without the pushback they said that moderate rebels would come under untenable pressure.
Those commanders argued that the fall of Aleppo would have huge consequences “not only for the Obama administration’s objective to ‘degrade and defeat’ ISIS, but also for the course of the uprising against President Assad,” according to the Daily Beast.
U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura says Aleppo would be a “good candidate” for a “freeze zone” across Syria in an attempt to halt the fighting in the country and provide humanitarian aid to civilians.
Jabhat al-Nusra Closes in on Shiite Village, Potentially Securing Supply Line to Aleppo
Jabhat al-Nusra and Sunni Islamist fighters “seized an area south of a Shiite Muslim village in northern Syria on Sunday after clashes with pro-government fighters,” Reuters reports.
The fighters seized territory to the south of al-Zahra and tried to take land east of the town, in an attempt to capture it and the nearby village of Nubl. The Syrian air force responded to the offensive by bombing several other villages north of Aleppo.
Both Nubl and al-Zahra are strategically located, situated along a highway leading from northern Syria into Turkey. Capturing both of them could open up a new rebel supply line into Aleppo and ease pressure on militants in the city. According to an opposition spokesman, the area “had been used as a launching pad by the Syrian military to attack Aleppo.”
Meanwhile “further east, Islamic State fighters shot down a Syrian war plane on Sunday close to the eastern city of Deir Ezzor,” the Syrian Observatory for Human rights reports.
U.S.-Led Airstrikes in Syria Kill Over 900 People, Spark Local Resentment
U.S. led airstrikes in Syria have killed 910 people, including 52 civilians, since the start of their offensive in September, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported this weekend.
The Observatory documented the death of 785 Islamic State fighters, a majority of whom were not Syrian, and 72 members of Jabhat al-Nusra. The strikes also impaired assets held by extremist groups.
“The coalition airstrikes targeted oil refineries and oil fields in Deir Ezzor, al-Hasakah and al-Raqqa, [which] led to material damages in these refineries and oil fields,” claims the reports.
The Guardian reports that the U.S. airstrikes have driven fighters from the Free Syrian Army and several Islamic military groups to “forge alliances with or even defect to the Islamic State (ISIS).
“We did not get any weapons from the U.S. to fight the regime for the last three years. Only now U.S. weapons arrived for fighting ISIS,” a Free Syrian Army fighter told the Guardian.
In light of that, “the growth in support for ISIS was inevitable,” he said. “People are suffocated and cannot stand any more.”
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